The FF Podcast Ep. 8: Retirement Savings with PT from PT Money

by Austin on Aug, 01 2010 in Investing, Podcast

On this week’s episode of The Foreigner’s Finances Podcast I talk with one of the few full-time personal finance bloggers, PT, from PTMoney.com.

PT recently wrote a post for U.S. News and Yahoo! called the 5 Reasons Your Are Not Saving Enough for Retirement.

During our conversation we talk about this article and how you can properly prepare yourself for retirement in your 20s and 30s to make your life financially easier down the road. PT also tells us about PT Money’s transformation to a full-time blog and explains what it means to be a marathon completer.

Remember, you can subscribe to the podcast’s RSS feed or download and subscribe on iTunes to get every episode delivered to you.

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Why Do Savings Accounts Only Allow 6 Withdrawals Per Statement Cycle?

by Austin on Jul, 30 2010 in Banking, Savings

Did you know your savings account has a limit on the amount of withdrawals you can make in a statement cycle (usually 4 weeks)?

This often hidden fact can be a surprise to some when they reach their 7th withdrawal in a month and get dinged with a $10 fee and a tisk-tisk e-mail from their bank.

So what’s the deal with this restriction? What do banks gain and what exactly is considered a withdrawal?
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How Does Ally Bank Make Money?

by Austin on Jul, 28 2010 in Banking

Banks often get a lot of crap for poor judgment, a lack of customer service, and thoughtless business moves but we often forget that a majority of people use banks for free.

There is no fee for a majority of the checking and savings accounts out there. These banks host our money, insure it up to $250,000, and provide their employees and services with no charge.

So how do big banks make money?

Well, they offer other money-making services like auto loans and mortgages. They also take your savings and invest it elsewhere (more on this later). And credit cards are also a way for banks to make money off you – when you don’t pay off your balance on your bank’s credit card, the extra interest you pay goes in to the banks pocket.

The big banks have a lot of different income streams and although some recent government legislation is threatening some of the less moral money-making practices, big banks are doing all right.

But what about the smaller online banks that don’t have 49 different income streams? How do they make money?
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Catching Up on Investing Posts

by Austin on Jul, 26 2010 in Investing

Getting your finances to the point where you’re regularly investing income in an IRA or 401(k) is the last 15% of dominating your finances. Over the past 11 months I’vewritten a handful of posts about investing, and year 2 of FF will dive in to this topic even more.

In the meantime, here’s some of the most popular and helpful FF posts on investing.

Savings? Check. But, Now What? -  Investing is the final frontier of managing your money and this post helps ease your investing tensions by answering questions about how much you should invest and where it should go.

The 5 Minute Guide to Roth IRAs (Video) – Everything you’ve ever wondered about investing through Roth IRAs is answered in this post. This will help get you from “maybe I should consider investing” to “I’m investing my money tonight.”

Dollar-Cost Averaging Takes the Stress Out of Investing – The stock market can be difficult to wrap your head around with its constant ups and downs. This post introduces an investing concept that allows you to efficiently and simply invest your money so the stock market swings don’t have a huge effect on your portfolio.

5 Mind Hacks to Make Yourself Learn to Invest – It’s one thing to know you should invest and another to actually do it. This post helps cure your investing procrastination so you can get your money headed in the right direction.

How to Avoid My 3 Novice Investment Mistakes – In 2008 I bought some stock to test the investing waters. This posts talks about my 3 big investing mistakes in detail and how you can avoid them.

Photo: epicharmus

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The FF Podcast Ep. 7: Money Tips for 20-Somethings with MD from Studenomics

by Austin on Jul, 25 2010 in Podcast

On this week’s episode of The Foreigner’s Finances Podcast I talk with one of my favorite personal finance bloggers, MD from Studenomics.com.

MD writes about money for college students and twenty-somethings and because we’re both under-25 personal finance bloggers we discussed how young professionals can take their money by the horns instead of letting money control you.

From how to spend money, to the best places to cut expenses, we cover the gambit of personal finance for the under 30 audience.

You can subscribe to the podcast’s RSS feed or download and subscribe on iTunes to get every episode delivered to you.

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The 401(k) Beginner’s Manual

by Austin on Jul, 23 2010 in Investing

401(k) seems like a scary grown-up word that only stuffy businesspeople who work 65 hours a week and read The Wall Street Journal care about. In reality, there’s a very good chance your eligible to enroll in a 401(k) through your company and they may even offer you free money for investing.

Intrigued? You should be – we’re talking about free money here!

Let’s take a beginner’s look at the 401(k) and see how it can benefit you and your money over the next 50 years.
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Interview with an Ex-Businessman now an ESL Teacher in Brazil

by Austin on Jul, 21 2010 in Life Abroad

Today, Jim from – Qualidade de Vida (Quality of Life) shares with us his stories of living in Brazil where he teaches English after working in the U.S. for 20 years. Jim has been blogging about his adventures for almost 3 years and writes about topics in his life like food, work, and culture.

If you’ve ever dreamed of living somewhere totally different than your current situation and changing your life for the better, then this interview is for you.

Austin: What led you to Brazil?

Jim: Back in San Francisco I met a guy 11 years ago and we fell in love. He is a Brazilian who had been living in the USA for 12 years. Together we visited Brazil and his family several times over the years for vacation. I immediately loved the country, culture, people – everything. When Luiz suggested we move to Brazil I was all for it.
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Online Banks vs. Brick & Mortar Banks

by Austin on Jul, 19 2010 in Banking

Sorry to the FF Fanatics about the lack of a podcast yesterday. I’m in between scheduled interviews and couldn’t get one posted so check back next Sunday for a new episode.

On to the post!

It’s a big change for people to move their money from a brick and mortar bank (your typical local big or local bank like Chase, Bank of America, or “insert town name here” Bank) to an online bank (Ally, ING Direct, or HSBC). People tend to shy away from big changes and when the unknown is thrown in to the equation, the idea of change seems even more impossible.

So today, let’s take a look at the major differences between online banks (OB) and brick & mortar banks (BMB) so you can feel more comfortable and knowledgeable about what a switch of banks means for you and your money.

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